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The upgrade was a success! Please let me know in Site Discussion if anything has gone awry!

Regarding the photo, it's an old photography trick to make something seem larger by placing it closer to the camera. When taking pictures of fish, if you hold it away from your body toward the camera, it will seem larger.

You can also use this trick with CAMEL SPIDERS and FAMOUS LANDMARKS!

The

Comet moths are cousins of the Luna moths, as evident by their appearance.

Bat guano is rich in Potassium Nitrate which is a component of gun powder and in fertilizers. It is basically a salt, so use the prices for salt, so 5 gp per pound.

Does the salt from bat guano have the same amount of uses as other salts? Could it be refined to table salt (etc.)?

Seriously, chemistry knowledge doesn't provide the right to generalize.

Quote:

Actually, using salt prices would be highly inaccurate. For one, proper salt is prized for a lot more than its chemical value in ancient times. It's also a highly effective preservative (most places use sea salt for that, for obvious reasons, but rock salt is better for those foods the wealthy enjoy) as well as being considered a fine spice.

Called it. Yes that's right, even after it was already posted, I can still call things. I have that power. >_>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shroudeye

Hard to say what the value of the guano may be due to the many uses for agriculture and alchemy. In todays pricing, bat guano on the average sell for $5 USD for 2.2 pounds.

And so if a non-replica full antique sword costs two grand, dial it down based on that. Dial further down to account for the fact that swords aren't antiques.

Dial it even further down based on D&D's social class system - the more a sword costs in comparison to the commoner, the worse it is for your guano situation. And it's unlikely that any rich folk want bat guano.

Dial it even further down based on D&D's social class system - the more a sword costs in comparison to the commoner, the worse it is for your guano situation. And it's unlikely that any rich folk want bat guano.

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Also, why is this in encounters?

1) If there is high demand for anything some rich merchant type will be there to make sure it gets sold - if there is a profit to be had.
2) Encounters: If you are already hiring adventurers to get the stuff, send them after caves of Direbats with instructions that the Direbats are not to be killed. Direbat Guano has to be just as good for components, right?

There was a mission in a now-defunct game that asked the players to obtain a certain amount of bat guano from nearby caves for a merchant who catered to wizards, etc. We (the adventurers) decided to snag extra from the caves, thinking that if a merchant wanted it in such an amount, then it must be worth something, so we planned to sell the extra. That mission is long resolved and the game itself is now dead, sadly

2) Encounters: If you are already hiring adventurers to get the stuff, send them after caves of Direbats with instructions that the Direbats are not to be killed. Direbat Guano has to be just as good for components, right?

If merchants are that desperate for bat poo, they can just farm it. If you say 'no merchants don't do that sorta thing, they're too buzy trading lul' - then a bunch of merchants would band together and invest in farming. Or one would. Why not? Farming and herding dire bats doesn't sound that hard. Especially if PCs are capable of actually ignoring dire bats (although I understand that what the OP is going for is low level stealth/action adventure where everyone could be rogues, but rogues still kinda suck on their own in D&D, etc., etc.).

If merchants are rare, how have village folk even heard of the word 'merchant' if there aren't that many around?

Easiest solution (and one commonly used, for good reason): War scenario. Major kingdoms are at war, so that's why everyone (even in the home land) is desperate. If players leave town in the wrong direction, a bunch of bugbears immediately murder them and t-bag the corpses.